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Baylor coach Kim Mulkey suspended for NCAA game

The Associated Press

Posted:
07/02/2013 07:47:04 AM PDT

Updated:
07/02/2013 02:22:25 PM PDT

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FILE - In this April 1, 2013 file photo, Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, right, talks to an official during a regional semifinal game against Louisville in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament in Oklahoma City. The NCAA has given Mulkey a one-game suspension for criticizing the officiating following her team's loss to Louisville in the national championship tournament earlier this year.

INDIANAPOLIS—Baylor basketball coach Kim Mulkey was suspended from her team's next NCAA tournament game for criticizing the officiating after a loss to Louisville last spring.

The NCAA on Monday also reprimanded Mulkey and withheld Baylor's team championship per diem from the regional round.

After Louisville upset top-seeded Baylor 82-81 in March, Mulkey said the game was far too physical and she singled out the officials.

"I thought that all three of them, if they go past this round of officiating, it will be sad for the game," she said then. "I thought the two critical calls at the end of the game were really bad."

The NCAA said it was issuing a more severe penalty because Mulkey is a repeat offender. She was reprimanded in 2011 for criticizing the NCAA for the decision to put the Lady Bears in the same tournament bracket with Texas A&M, a team they had faced three times already that season. The Aggies beat Baylor on their way to the national title.

The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee said the "latest misconduct act by Mulkey" warranted the more stringent suspension.

"The committee unanimously felt that the behavior of Coach Mulkey was unacceptable and has no place in the women's basketball championship," said Carolayne Henry, committee chair and senior associate commissioner for the Mountain West Conference.